One of the most controversial and problematic of all of Shakespeare's plays, The Taming of the Shrew is a typical Elizabethan domestic comedy written around 1592. Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, arrives in Padua and announces to his friends that "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; / If... show more

One of the most controversial and problematic of all of Shakespeare's plays, The Taming of the Shrew is a typical Elizabethan domestic comedy written around 1592. Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, arrives in Padua and announces to his friends that "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; / If wealthily, then happily in Padua". He soon finds that a group of men keen to marry Bianca, the younger daughter of rich old Baptista, are frustrated by her elder, "shrewish" sister, Katherine. There is much subsequent hilarity as Bianca's suitors make a bet with Petruchio that he cannot "tame" and marry Katherine. Despite Katherine's protestations, Petruchio goes ahead with the match, using deliberately unorthodox behaviour to confuse Katherine (including a scene where he starves her), claiming that "this is the way to kill a wife with kindness". The play culminates with a scene of Katherine's apparently spontaneous subjection to her husband's will, where she places her hand beneath her husband's foot, and tells the other wives present that "thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper". The play's gratuitous scenes of women being abused and vilified in the name of "comedy" has made many directors and critics very uncomfortable with the play, and many feminist critics have condemned contemporary productions of the play as reproducing certain 16th-century stereotypes concerning women who speak out against male authority. --Jerry Brotton

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In high school Brad and I did a scene for the school, and then I read all the plays for my two Shakespeare classes at UNCG, and now I've reread it to keep Veronica company. As written there is only one amusing scene; takes some keen acting and directing to pull the rest of it off. Ten Things I Hate ...

The Taming of the Shrew has to be one of the most difficult of Shakespeare’s plays for a modern woman to appreciate. I don’t know about you, but I found it difficult to watch an independent young woman being “tamed” into a Stepford wife. I went to the cinema to see a version filmed at Stratford, ...

There was a reason why I chose not to post that many updates with this play. Because they all would have included some F bombs. This play is super messed up and I cannot believe that anyone watches this and thinks, hey this is funny and so romantic. It is not. Well something nice first. I am very ha...

Ok. I didn't like the way women were portrayed in this play!I think the rudeness of Katherine The Shrew is not her fault at all! It's the fault of her father that she turned out a shrew in the first place! He treated her sister Bianca better than he treated her, and then she, poor Katherine, is port...

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